Shooting a three flash portrait

As far as setup goes, I'm just thinking of this rig as a single light.I'm doing the things I would normally do if I was setting up the flash.I've got Krissy here on a stool, I've decided to work with anumbrella, I've got my light stand, I'm going to get it in the right place.And so I'm just thinking of this as onelight source, but of course it's not, It's threedifferent light sources, and I have to figure outhow to get my camera to communicate with it.And I don't really do that any way other than howI would if I was using my flashes all spread around.What I've got here are two Canon 600EX-RTs and a Yongnuo YN-560.

This an very inexpensive all-manual flash, and two Canon flashes that have built-inradio transmitters in them and I've got my radio controller here on my camera.So I'm going to have radio control to two of these flashes.The all-manual flash is being set to triggerby the optical flash of my two Canon flashes.I could actually have two of these Yongnuo ones and just a single radio one.Or if I had flashes that were controlledby infrared I could have an infrared transmitter onmy camera, and as long as I had goodline of sight to my flashes, everything would work.

So I'm really just doing the same communication concerns that Iwould have, if I was setting up multiple flashes in different locations.Depending on the way that you communicate with your flashes, youmay need to be careful when you're shopping for a three-way bracket.If you need to have infrared connection between thethree flashes in your rig here, then you need tobe sure that you can get all the little IRwindows aimed at each other and that kind of thing.That might require a different bracket than what I'm using here.There are a lot of different options for multiple-flash brackets.You can get some that let you mount two flashes,some that let you mount three, you can get railsthat let you mount four or six or eight orwhatever, so you have a lot of options out there.

Your main consideration is, does it rig to the stands that you haveand can you get the communication needs that your particular flash system has.So, what I want to show you right now, I said alreadythat I don't really need three flashes in terms of lighting forthis situation, I can get by just fine with a single flashin here but my batteries are low, they're not recharging very quickly.So, by using multiple flashes, and yeah, I could justchange the batteries rather than buying the $30 flash bracketand all that, but still, this is really cool I'mgoing to use multiple flashes to speed up my recycle time.

So I've got one flash turned on right now.I've got the flash in manual mode just so thatI can really take control of,of how much power I'm using.Just for the sake of example here, I'm going to put this back a little bit.So I'm going to take a shot here at full power withone flash, so you can see how much light I'm getting.So, this is what I've got, it's a little hot.I might want to turn the power down a little bit or move theflash a little bit further away, but I'm not going for aesthetics right now.I just want to show you how all of this flash power balances out.

So, I'm going to turn on this second Canon flash, and I chose the Canon flash becauseI can control both of those from mycontrol over, controller over here so it's very easy.And I'm going to dial my power down to half power.So now, instead of using one flash at fullpower, I'm using two flashes at half power, whichshould be the same amount of light that Iwas getting out of one flash at full power.So, if I look at these.Yes, this looks pretty much like the same amount of light.

The thing is my flashes will now recycle twiceas quickly because I'm only burning up half the power.I can turn on a third flash and pick up even more recycle time.So, when working with a model where expressions arefleeting and changing very quickly and you want to beable to work fast, this is a really niceway of buying yourself speedier shooting, speedier flash shooting.It's a drag to have that perfect moment and fire offthe shot and the flashes don't go because they're still recharging.This buys me a much faster shooting capability.And then when I go outside and work kindof against the bright ambient light that might be outsidein bright sunlight, I've got right now, an extrastop and a half of flash power to play with.

Resume Transcript Auto-Scroll

Author

Updated

3/14/2019

Released

5/19/2013

In The Practicing Photographer, photographer and teacher Ben Long shares a weekly serving of photographic instruction and inspiration. Each installment focuses on a photographic shooting scenario, a piece of gear, or a software technique. Each one concludes with a call to action designed to inspire you to pick up your camera (or your mouse or smartphone) to try the technique for yourself.Note: Because this is an ongoing series, viewers will not receive a certificate of completion.

Skill Level Beginner

32h 41m

Duration

2,310,720

Views

Show MoreShow Less

Q: Why can't I earn a Certificate of Completion for this course?

A: We publish a new tutorial or tutorials for this course on a regular basis. We are unable to offer a Certificate of Completion because it is an ever-evolving course that is not designed to be completed. Check back often for new movies.